The Loyalty of a Dog

Red Sky at Night

I wake to the calls of the nearby cockatoos. I stand tall and take a look around, the rain stopped as I slept and now the ground is only damp, as opposed to the watery slosh from last night. I trot over to the creek to see if the water has gone down, but it’s still high and gushing. I continue my journey, but this time I’m energised enough to run.

I keep my eyes fixed on the water while I run; this causes me to trip on almost every root, branch and rock in my path. Every so-often I stop to get a sense of where exactly, I am. I’ll sniff around for Red’s scent, but I never find it, I bark loudly into the distance but get no reply. I look to the horizon and realize I’m miles from home. Not a minute goes by that I don’t think, “you’re mad Blu, you’ve become a mad dog” because it’s probably true.

The fork I come to splits in three directions. Usually when I come to a fork I sniff, find nothing, and go with my gut. But this time my gut isn’t telling me anything. I look for some sign of what to do next, I sniff the air but Red is still absent. I sniff harder; I sniff in all directions. All I get is the eucalypts, the distant cattle, earth, and cow pats. The pats make me think of the way Red smelled the morning before he disappeared, I single them out to try and lift my spirits.

I sniff the air, I smell something different. It’s a strange scent and it’s very faint, but I think I can get it. It’s the smell of cow pats and…something, cow pats and…mud…and…something. One more try, I sniff hard for the scent. Cow pats, mud…wet dog. Wet dog! That’s it! It must be Red; he’s the only other canine that would be out here.

I try to sniff for him again but the scent has vanished, just like that, like it wasn’t even there in the first place. Did I imagine it? It’s possible, I’ve been out here wandering around for nearly two days and I haven’t eaten anything for four days. Regardless of whether or not I imagined the scent, that little shred of possibility is all I have to go on. I pull myself away from the creek and head off in what I hope is Red’s direction.

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I’m so far from the creek now; I can’t even see it anymore. I’m starting to regret my decision to leave the water’s edge, what if I’ve gone straight passed Red? The wind is starting to come from behind me, which doesn’t help; it makes it very hard to smell anything out in front.

The afternoon sun is falling into late evening; the day is coming to a close. My search is becoming more urgent, I’m worrying more and more. If Red is still alive, I need to find him before too long, before it’s too late. I run faster

I’m exhausted by the time it gets dark. I slow down when I finally return to another creek fork, at least the water is shallower here. There’s an overwhelming stench of dead cows and cow pats, they smell wonderful but they’re extremely distracting. I’m so exhausted that it takes me a moment to realise what I’ve come across, the cattle! About 5 cows lay lifeless is the water, not many but still enough to know I’m on the right track. A lot of the cows are lying defeated on the bank, they survived their ordeal.

I immediately start looking for Red, he must be here. I start by sniffing the air but my nose is being stubborn, only concentrating on the cows. I wander around on the bank first, trying to pick up a trace of Red in case he’s wandered off. I jump down to the creek when I find nothing, and start wading through the neck high water. I splash around aimlessly. It takes all my strength not to get pulled away by the current, and all my will power not to dig into a cow. The cows are taunting my empty stomach with their stench, but I have to stay on track.

I’m getting frustrated at this; I’m not finding any sign that Red has been here, the cows are the only thing I can seem to concentrate on, and I’m exhausted enough without the current pulling my legs out from under me every few seconds.

I’m ready to give up, I’m just so tired. I paddle over to the side of the water where it’s shallow, and ready myself to climb out when something upstream catches my eye. A lump, a few metres up on the opposite side of the bank, just a lump. I sniff towards it, but I smell only the cows. It could be a cow, it probably is. It moves, a live cow…maybe.

I bark at the lump, it barks back.

Red.